Women of the ______ wore large nose plugs until it got banned in 1974.

@bhavpreetghaiphotography

Mishmi tribe

Nyishi tribe

Apatani tribe

Apatani tribe

The Apatani tribe live in the Ziro valley in Arunachal Pradesh. The tribe's ritual of women wearing large nose plugs and tattooing thick lines on their face, is a dying ritual, that hasn't been practised since 1974.

It is believed that the ritual started since Apatani women were really beautiful and were often abducted by men of the neighbouring tribes. To protect them, the village elders decided to start inserting nose plugs and tattoo the faces of the women when they grew 10 years old. Since the Apatani’s have no written record of their history, and their traditions are passed on orally to the next generation, the legend of why the ritual started cannot be verified by any text. The ritual was banned by the Apatani Youth Association in 1974.